Next Steps: What Can Congress Do?

The principles and decision filters of new environmentalism are tools with which to evaluate different policy options. They also provide a map to direct environmental policy reformers on their long, evolutionary road. Examples of specific public policies that reformers can encourage Congress and the administration to implement follow.

Unified Statute and Devolution. Passage of a Unified Environmental Reform Statute is a good first step. A unified statute would create procedures for decentralizing decision making and measuring successes. It could target the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act for revision through phased-in devolution and the sunsetting of duplicative provisions. Because we know that many of the risks addressed by current legislation are trivial or nonexistent, the best decisions about these risks would be made locally. [Knowledge Filter; Risk Filter] Furthermore, different localities would discover and implement different solutions based on their unique conditions. [Strategy Filter]

Several ideas that have been outlined by the Washington, D.C.-based National Environmental Policy Institute serve as a useful starting point for such a statute. A unified statute should:

• Devolve to the states authority, responsibility and accountability for setting environmental goals where impacts are primarily local, implementing policy and monitoring success. [Decentralization principle] Where air basins or watersheds cross state boundaries, the states involved would have primary authority for setting acceptable standards, and the national role would be one of mediator. [Flexibility principle]

• Create sunset provisions to phase out existing legislation as revised environmental laws are introduced. As states and localities demonstrate increased competence and ability, they should gain responsibility for their environmental problems. They should not have their hands tied by cumbersome and outdated environmental statutes that dictate priorities, standards and technologies. Since new environmental problems arise and existing but previously unrecognized problems emerge over time, old programs should be eliminated so as not to hamper new solutions. [Efficiency principle, Do No Harm principle]

• Create a performance-based system that emphasizes ambient environmental standards, not the use of specific technologies. [Balancing principle, Flexibility principle, Efficiency principle]

• Establish mechanisms for developing ambient standards and issuing permits so that emission permits could be freely traded.⁵⁸ Permits could take the form of contracts or covenants. [Flexibility principle, Individualism principle]